Cast iron woodstove restoration

DH and I have come into possession (yipee!!) of an old woodstove. It used to be in my grandparents' cottage, and is quite old. It sat in family garages for about 15 years and was totally rusted. Tonight DH sandblasted it at work, and she's looking good. Now she needs some makeup.

Dad says to use stove black when it's hooked up and hot. I've read elsewhere to use lard. Opinions anyone?

Also, she has a crack about a 1/16 of an inch in the top plate from the round part you lift out, to the edge where it curves down to the lip around the top. Can we use it like this, or must we have it repaired? Also, the "hourglass" piece between the two removable circles on top has a small hole in the dip where you place the lifter. Must this be repaired for use, and how?

Hope someone can adivse us. We're just itching to heat our house with this, and be able to cook without electricity, if necessary.

She's a beauty, scrolls and swirls on her everywhere. Probably more than 60 years old.

I don't know where you're located, Rheba, but here in Maine there a at least a couple of places you can go to get replacement parts for those old stoves. The one I've been to is in Thorndike. It's an old family business called "Bryants" They deal mainly in stoves that were made in the New England area. I've been through their "warehouse" and it is unbelievable the thousands upon thousands of parts they have in their possession. I absolutely love those old stoves so going there and seeing all those rusty parts gets me drooling. They refurbish stoves, but will also sell you parts, if you know what you want. They'll need the make of the stove, and it would be helpful to have a picture on hand. I tell you this because if Maine is too far for you to travel, perhaps you have such an operation in your area? If so, they might need the same info.

Now--I'm no expert, but DH and I completely tore my old cookstove apart, sanded it down, and put it back together again. When we did, we used stove cement for the oven section. We wanted to seal up any cracks so the thing won't smoke. It was tricky using stove cement. We had just a few minutes before it hardened, and the way those old stoves are made, every piece had to go together in a certain order and all at once. DH is pretty clever that way. I would never have been able to do it myself. If your cracks aren't too large, do you suppose stove cement might work? I'd be interested in what someone who knew more than I do would say about that. Don't think because I suggested it that it's a good idea. I don't want to be responsible for your house burning down!

I have yet to use mine. We've had too many outside projects to get done. Now that we're getting a good snowstorm, we can start working indoors again. We need to get a metal bestos chimney hooked up and get some sort of a hearth for the stove to sit on. I've got stove black. I don't know about lard. Either is going to smell bad and smoke the first few times you fire up the stove. Stove black gives the stove an "instant" curing. It looks real nice.

RHEBA if the cracks in your stove top are cosmetic and not structeral you will not have a problem. If your chimney is working properly you should have "draw"onthe stove anytime you have a fire built.IF you have smoke coming out of any place except the chimney, you should check the chimney!!

Even though not as fancy as yours, we have had the most exciting success with repairing our cookstove and making it a very efficient-joy-to-cook-on-and-be-around cookstove. From another post of mine,

The cookstove is just a joy. We got it in Vancouver for $125 CDN (about $87.50 USD) at a garage sale. The woman said "get it out of my garage", OK we did. We spent about another $125 fixing it [we have a great shop in Vancouver (Y. Franks Ltd) that is like the store that Nancy in Maine described]. It works great and has a warming oven. Once you learn to cook on it then it is the best. I sealed it up real good with new gaskets, and got a new grate and handle to lift the top to put wood in from the top instead of the front - much easier and bigger wood can be used. It is so nice to start it in the morning. It is a 1934 Fawcett.

My local hardware store carries a spray paint especially made to withstand high heats i.e. wood stoves. I just sanded down the rusty spots on my wood cook stove, sprayed the whole thing and it looks and works great. The first 2 times I fired it up it smelled somewhat, but after that the paint was set/cured and no smell. cleans like a breeze. I also used it on my big wood heating stove with excellent results. It also prevents rust from coming back and/or starting anew.

You folks have me champing at the bit!! I've spent the last 2 Saturdays combing the internet trying to find a place near that restores old stoves. I hadn't planned on fixinng the one in the cabin(just replacing it, the folks paid $5 for it 34yrs ago) but, spoke to oldest sister and she said there must be someplace you can find that can fix it. Needless to say the old soul in the young body is going to do her darndest to do so. Did find an Antique woodstove preservation Society based out of Waukesha,WI. Also, called Lehmans. There's a stove parts place located in Pittsburg,PN called Heckler Bros. (412) 922-6811

It took us a year to figure ours out,the key to one not smokeing is to clean out the ash pan under the oven often. ours smokes like a fool if I dont clean it out. ours has a name plate that opens in the front under the oven at first I never knew it opened.Ours had a small crack in the fire box,we used stove cement.